Singles’ Day Strategy Changes to Focus on Customer Loyalty for Quality Improvement
For consumer brands doing business in China, no date on the retail calendar is more important than November 11, also known as Singles’ Day. Singles’ Day has grown exponentially since it was introduced by Alibaba Group in 2009. Backed by the online retail giant’s sophisticated consumer experiences, Singles’ Day has become the world’s largest annual shopping event, with sales outperforming Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined. Today, the event is the pinnacle of the global retail calendar, with more than 290,000 brands offering 17 million products to more than 1 billion annual active consumers across the Alibaba ecosystem today. year.
Amid global uncertainties and consumer priorities shifting to quality and experiences, merchants and platforms must rethink their Singles’ Day strategy. Is the ultimate success measured by the number of GMVs obtained during the marketing period that can be expensive and drive pent-up demand for the short term, or is it building a lasting relationship for their businesses in the future? year? The shift to more sustainable success metrics provides another lesson for traditional discount-driven shopping holidays like Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Shopping holidays shouldn’t just be a race to the bottom for merchants.
Better Quality, Better Variety
Top brands are watching. The latest Singles’ Day highlights the rise of brands in China’s strategies from campaign promotion investments to long-term customer retention. Brands are reinventing Singles’ Day as an occasion to build audience loyalty, reflecting the changing values of their customers with preferences for customer experience (CX) and quality of products rather than prices.
The loyalty-driven model is showing its strength in China’s pet product industry. Royal Canin, a leading pet food provider, effectively recruits and engages members of the Alibaba ecosystem using techniques that include scenario profiling, extensive educational content, and benefits specifically targeted at new members, such as free medical checkups for pets. The efforts yielded record customer engagement. The number of Tmall member enrollments increased by more than 10% compared to the previous cycle, almost 20 times the industry benchmark. First time member purchases increased by 20%. With almost 1.6 million members in its Tmall flagship store, Royal Canin has gained a growth driver for its long-term development.
The Power of the Most Loyal Cohorts
For sustainable growth and long-term profitability, brands use Alibaba’s e-commerce platforms to create unique experiences for their loyal customers, including premium customer loyalty and membership programs, seamless customer experience across channels, and compelling content.
More than 40 brands have seen their membership base grow to more than 10 million after the launch of Tmall, such as Nike, which rewards its premium customers with shopping points and engages them with interactive game that uses 3D avatars of customers.
Alibaba’s loyal consumer base with high spending power is a target-rich environment for brands’ loyalty programs to tap into. In the 12 months ending September 2022, over 124 million active Chinese consumers spent nearly US$1,400 per capita on Taobao and Tmall, Alibaba’s twin retail platforms. The retention rate of these consumers in the Alibaba ecosystem is 98%. Consumers also increase their engagement over time. Over a five-year time frame, an active consumer typically purchases from more product categories the longer they are with Alibaba, from seven product categories to 19 product categories. And by June 2022, 25 million additional members of 88VIP, Alibaba’s growing premium loyalty program, will spend at least US$7,800 per capita annually. Over 98% of 88VIP members made purchases during Singles’ Day this year, with an increasing contribution to overall GMV.
Livestreaming, Immersive Shopping Experience and Novel Products
Brands use livestreaming to reach their customer base. More than 300 million consumers have watched livestreaming on Taobao Live since the start of the Singles’ Day presale period. Brands such as skincare company Jala Group have used livestreaming to drive its membership loyalty programs, which has helped improve customer engagement and reach customers more precisely, and can ‘g will translate into a higher purchase rate.
XR Laboratory, a research lab established by Alibaba to develop augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) applications, supports immersive Singles’ Day VR experiences for brands such as Nintendo , Underverse, and Blizzard Entertainment with thousands of templates for content creation, shopping. coupons and discount codes, free traffic and search engine optimization (SEO) support, and favorable financing terms.
Singles’ Day transforms shopping festivals to drive short-term sales and high-quality growth for merchants and brands. It will continue to serve as an innovation testbed for sustainable growth and inspiration for Western discount-driven festivals.
Learn more about how Alibaba helps brands succeed at the world’s largest retail event.
